

IHI 






1 E386 






Lt48 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

lill llli 



00005076817 § 



♦ '^^ 




%.yy&^ 



SPEECH 



O F 



WADDY THOMPSON, 



SOUTH-CAROLINA, 



HOUSE OF llEPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, 



IN COMMITTEE OP THE WHOLE 



THE STATE OF THE UNION 



DELIVERED FEBRUARY 5, 1839. 



WASHINGTON : 
PRINTED AT THE MADI30NIAN OFFICE. 

1839. 



SPEECH. 



It is not my purpose, sir, to make a speech, but to throw together some " random 
recollections" of the last and present administrations. It may not be wholly un- 
profitable, especially, if it shall suggest to some of my former political friends to 
look well to the new associations which they are about to form. Brief it probably 
will, desultory it must be. My colleague (Mr. Pickens) has said that any party 
which acts upon the principles set fortli in the report of the Committee of Ways 
and Means shall have his support. I understand him by this to mean, and only to 
mean, that he will support the measures which may be proposed for carrying out 
these principles, and not as pledging himself to support the re-election of those now 
in power. 1 hope that in so understanding my colleague I am not mistaken. I 
am sure I am not. Thus understood, I entirely agree with him. I have always 
thus acted whepever the administration has, by accident, staggered on a proper 
measure. I have voted for it. I shall continue to do so. More than this my col- 
league could not have intended. He had too often, and too fiercely, denounced 
those in power. He had uttered too many eloquent and burning anathemas against 
them as not only ignorant and incompetent, but as corrupt and profligate, to make 
it possible for him to unite with them without the amplest recantation — if not as aa 
act of justice to them, as due to himself and the country. Besides, sir, there is 
another reason much more honorable to him, which would prevent it. He knows 
those in power — he knows Ihem well — and has known them long ; and if accident, 
or the necessities of their position, have driven them into a wise and proper policy, 
he well knows that when that necessity no longer exists, they will, by a natural 
proclivity, relapse into their former courses. "Why this joy and exultation — this 
rapture I may say — at the j)rofession of sound and just principles? Is this profes- 
sion any new thing ? Is there a single one of these principles — state rights, economy , 
retrenchment, anti-internal improvement, or any other that has not been constantly 
asserted in the messages and documents from the commencement of the late 
administration, and in practice as constantly and most flagrantly violated ? All this 
I will prove. Is there any where a more admirable compendium of the doctrines 
of the States rights party than the messages of Gen. Jackson ? the man who has 
done more to break down all the landmarks of the Constitution, and to consolidate 
all power in this Federal Government, than every other man who has preceded 
him. 

A gentleman of Kentucky, formerly a distinguished member of this body, who 
said and did so many good things, that I have always regretted that he leftCongress 
before I entered it, once said that Virginia would die some day of an abstraction. 
Sir, there was a profound philosophy in the remark, and it is true as applied to more 
states of the South than Virginia — we are destined to die — to be killed by abstrac- 
tions. Profess our principles, talk of retrenchment, reform, state rights, and 
especially if you will add a word or two of state remedies and the right of state 
interposition, and adopt in practice what measures you please — force bills, tariffs, 
Cumberland roads, harbor bills, or whatever else you choose. And such, sir, has 



been, and is now, the policy of this administration. To gull and catch the South 
with the profession of certain principles, and to secure other sections with the solid 
realities of acts in violation of every one of those principles. Their motto is that 
of Lady Macbeth — "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it." 

I have said that I would show that the late and present administrations have 
violated every single one of the great principles upon which Gen. Jackson came 
into power. I will add, sir, that never have the just expectations of patriotic and 
confiding friends been so cruelly disappointed, since the return of Charles the 
Second to England, when a noble minded and loyal people lined the roads from 
Dover to London with joyous and heartfelt greetings, and in the exuberance of 
their generous joy, freely forgiving all the past offences of his odious race in their 
happy visions of hope of the future. How that confidence was repaid who does 
not know. Thatheartless profligate rode on through this dense and living mass of 
loyalty and love as insensible to all these feelings as the horse that bore him — 
the nobler animal of the two. Since that day,"^! repeat, the just expectations of 
patriotic and devoted friends have not been so disappointed, or pledges so openly 
violated. 

Shall we trust again to the hollow professions of these very same men. No, 
sir, the head of your party was once told by a distinguished Senator from Virginia 
— you have deceived us once, that was your fault — if you do it again, it will be 
ours. I said every principle. No, sir, there is one to which they have adhered 
with a noble fidelity. That famous maxim — " To the victors belong the spoils." 

The general policy of the party cannot be more fitly illustrated than by the 
measure now under discussion, whilst forever prating of retrenchment and econo- 
my, they lavish thousands and millions on the Cumberland road, harbors, and 
other such objects, not only in violation of the Constitution, but of all their 
own professed opinions, and seek to atone for it by reducing an appropriation for 
an important arm of the national defence, the paltry sum of $60,000, and by 
cheating mail contractors and other small employees of the Government. 

A word or two as to this matter of internal improvement. If there was anv 
one principle which more than another entered into the canvass which resulted 
in the election of General Jackson, it was the question of internal improvement ; 
and, sir, what has been the result? I will tell you. That administration actually 
expended more money in internal improvement than all the preceding administra- 
tions from the foundation of the Government. In the Administration of his pre- 
decessor, an amount next to nothing was expended ; but he was turned out for the 
enormity of holding an abstract opinion in favor of the power. His successor, 
who carries the exercise of that power to the most extreme and alarming extent, 
is not only to be excused, but that successor, or what is the same thing, his nomi- 
nee and eleve, is to be confided in, notwithstanding other and weighty objections; 
because he makes similar promises. I reply to such promises as did old Quickely 
to FalstaflT, " aye, and you said so before Sir John." A man may be borne down by 
a torrent which ho cannot resist. He may be overcome by force, but if he bears 
himself rightly, and preserves his mens siln cuncia recti, he may have a jov in 
defeat which even success cannot give. But for myself, I have no fancy for 
being cheated that makes one think meanly of himself. 

How stands our present Chief Magistrate on this question of internal improve- 
ment? Did he not vote for placing turnpike gates on the Cumberland road? a 
power by far the greatest that has ever been asserted or attempted — the power of 
destroying the right of travelling, of the citizen in his own State, without the per- 
mission of, and paying tribute to, another (iovcrnment. 

Jhit to come to matters of much more recent occurrence. Did he not, at the 
last session, sign a bill appropriating nearly two millions for clearing out harbors ? 
A species of internal improvement which, whilst it is as unconstitutional as any 



other, is infinitely the most to be deprecated, as it is necessarily local and partial: 
and must enure only to the benefit of the commercial sections, which are always 
the most wealthy, to the exclusion of the interior, the poorer sections, and those 
most needinir these aids. Nay, more, sir, the benefit is not even local ; it is indi- 
vidual, and for the benefit mainly, of those owning the lands where the harbors 
are made. Again: did he not sign a bill making appropriation lor the Cumber- 
land road, and will ho not continue to sign them as often as they are passed? 
No one doubts it, and yet he professes to think these measures unconstitutional, 
and Southern men who do really think them so, and rise in wrath whenever they 
are before the House, recommend this Chief Magistrate to their friends of the 
South, as the .special guardian and conservator of their peculiar principles. 
Why, sir, is all this ? Why have not these professions been carried out? Are 
those who make them insincere ? Then they are not to be trusted. Are they sin- 
cere ? Then they have shown themselves mcompetent, if for ten years, with a 
dense, compact and drilled majority of thirty or forty votes, instead of reform in 
these particulars, they have been running on from bad to worse. 

There is another point upon which the South is urged to an embrace, which 
but lately was regarded as foul and leprous — tlic tariff. 1 can hardly persuade 
myself that there is any one, ccrtaiidy no respectable number of politicians in this 
country, who do not regard that question as settled, and permanently settled. Some 
gentlemen speak of the compromise as ending in 1842. 1 regard it as beginning 
then, and that the intermediate time has only been a course of preparation. 
Whence the danger of renewed agitation? The South is satisfied with it, bad 
bargain as'it unquestionably was — a very bad bargain. But the point of honor 
was saved, and as Francis the First said after the battle of Pavia, it is all that was 
saved. The manufacturers are satisfied, as they have much reason to be, for 
they never were more prosperous. Whence then the danger ? There is none, 
sir, but from political agitators, who desire to use this topic as they have used it, 
and as they would use the most sacred and delicate of the institutions of public or 
of private life, as counters in their cheating and profligate games of personal am- 
bition. 

1 understand the game, for a game it is, and I here, in my place, denounce it as it 
deserves. That there is one little corner, if no otlier, where just denunciation will 
be heeded. Those now in power are much indebted for that power to this very 
tariir subject— it has done them yeoman's service, and they desire to have again 
in their hands so powerful an instrument. They expect again to divide, as they 
have done, the Northern and Southern wings of the opposition, and still more, 
they calculate to gain favor with each party, as they have heretofore done, by 
professing difl'erent opinions in every different line of latitude — opposed to the 
tariff in the South — surprised in the North that any one could have doubted their 
support of that policy. Is it forgotten, sir, that Mr. Van Buren voted for the 
taritVof 1828. The bill of abominations; one of those things, by which a wise 
and inscrutable Providence, works good out of evil. 1 do believe that the revolt- 
ing enormity of that bill, enal)h;d the South at last, to assail the whole policy as 
successfully as it did ; yes, sir, for this revolting measure, unconstitutional as bis 
friends now admit it to be, he not only voted, but was in favor of the Force Bill ; 
to execute, by the bayonet, a law which he believed unconstitutional. Great God, 
sir, to what have we come; are we men, bearded men, or children, that such lan- 
guage should be addressed to us ; such attempts to cheat and laugh at us. For 
mercy's sake, if you are determined to overcome us, do it in such a way as will 
leave us some little of our own self-esteem. Do not make of us, willingly, con- 
scious dupes. 

But, sir, the support of it was not all; he was closetted, night after night, 
with the Southern gentlemen, consulting as to the best means of defeat- 



ing the measure, and, to their perfect astonishment, voted for it. Here we 
see him voting for this most pernicious and unconstitutional measure and think- 
ing it so, and in violation of other very high obligations. What was the ex- 
cuse ? He did it under the coercion of instructions from his Legislature — a 
New York Legislature — an Albany Regency Legislature, instructing him, 
who was confessedly their head, to do that to which his own inclinations and 
sense of duty were opposed. Credat Judeus apella non ego. 

But this reason was only given at the South. If I am not wholly mis- 
taken, at a public meeting, shortly afterwards in Albany, Mr. Van Buren pro- 
fessed himself in favor of a protective tarifl', and expressed his surprise that any 
one should ever have doubted it. Because, forsdbih, he owned twenty thousand 
sheep. Not influenced by any of those high and exciting topics of encourage- 
ment to our own native industry, of complete national independence, which, de- 
lusive and fallacious as they are, have something lofty and generous and exci- 
ting in them. Oh no, sir, not for any of these ; but because he had twenty 
thousand sheep. He was amazed that any one should suppose it possible for 
a man who owned 20,000 sheep, to be opposed to the tariff. Truly a most 
sheepish reason. 

^ Sir, if that disastrous measure is ever again to agitate this country, I desire 
some other dependence than that which shall be placed in any one man, and es- 
pecially on a man who, when the country was on the eve of a civil war, was 
heard or thought of by no one. In that, or any other great crisis, other spirits are 
looked to, to direct the storm. I have no fears on that subject. It will not be re- 
vived. If it is, thank God, the whole South will be animated as one man, with 
the same self-devoting spirit as was heretofore one of the smallest of them, 
in the terrible conflict through which she passed. When denounced by her ene- 
mies, abandoned by friends, and deserted in the hour of peril by those who 
should have sustained, she trod, undismayed, " her war path" alone. 

There is another subject too delicate to be lightly touched, and too important 
not to be alluded to. We are asked to rely upon this same individual for the 
protection of another and our greatest interest — whilst I will not deny that he 
has lately acted well on that subject, and would not insinuate that he has the 
slightest taint of abolitionism upon him ; still I do want confidence in his dispo- 
sition or his ability to meet a gieat crisis, to throw himself in the way of a 
bursting torrent — God has given the qualities necessary to (his to ie\w men, and 
he is not one of them. Possessed, although he unquestionably is, of many 
high endowments, I cannot however close my eyes to the fact, that his zeal 
in favor of the South has been in exact proportion as his star has waned in the 
North ; and, although Mr. Van Buren has unquestionably acted well of late upon 
this subject, I cannot forget that he voted for the instructions under which Rufus 
King introduced the Missouri question into Congress — nor have I forgotten that 
I have seen a letter from him, about that time, to a political friend, in which in re- 
ference to those instructions he says 'don't be alarmed, it will benefit our party ;' I 
speak from memory, but believe those arc the very words. Here again is an- 
other most sheepish reason : He would not do it from any generous and enlarged 
enthusiasm for human liberty, but because it would benefit the party. Yes, sir, 
to benefit a political party, our whole political fabric was made, from capitol to 
basement stone, to reel and totter, and patriots and philanthropists looked on with 
trembling honor, expecting to see topple in ruins the proudest and the last tem- 
ple reared by human wisdom to human liberty. But there were those who 
looked on unterrified and unconcerned, "purring over sinister intrigues and petty 
stratagems." It would benefit the parly. Were there none of those honorable 
fears, "fears of the brave," that the brightest hope of man might be extinguished 
forever — no one noble throb of filial devotion, no trembling concern for the dan- 



gers of the republic — oh, no, if the country should survive the shock it would 
benefit the party. He felt unconcerned for all these, and played on his mise- 
rable game of party politics, unmoved amidst the throes and beatings of a con- 
vulsed and endangered state. 

But, sir, if it is unpleasant to look on this side of the picture, there is another 
of a very different character. There has always been in our happy country, 
talents and virtues which have risen to the level of the great occasion that de- 
manded them. It was so then. There were men who, cleansing themselves 
from every selfish feeling, without which no man ever performed a glorious 
action, with singleness and purity of heart, devoted themselves to restoring peace 
and quiet to the country and saving its glorious institutions, and they did so. 
The petty intriguers, who had commenced the agitation, slunk away in dismay, 
as certain unclean birds on the rising of the sun. But is it not, sir, rather too 
much that the man who was amongst the first to originate that dangerous agi- 
tation, should now be proclaimed as the only annointed saviour of Southern insti- 
tutions, and he a slave holder himself, who quieted it, denounced as a dangerous 
agitator? 

I do not believe that the eyes of our rulers are ever raised above the petty 
consideration of party tactics to the great and general interests of the country. 
A more striking instance of this has not occurred than in a note to the report 
of the Committee of Ways and Means. It is charged as an unnecessary extra- 
vagance, the additional appropriation for the Cherokee Indians, of two millions ; 
and it is said that this increase was recommended by a committee of the Senate, ol 
which Judge AVhite was chairman. Now, sir, without any intentional disrespect 
to the honorable chairman, I pronoimcc that there is not one word of truth in the 
whole statement. It is not true. It did not originate in the Senate, and it never 
was referred to a committee, of which Judge White was chairman; but to the 
committee, of which Mr. Wright was chairman, an authority greater, no doubt, with 
the gentleman, but with few others than that of 'the just Aristides.' It is not true 
that there was any additional appropriation proposed. The proposition, originally, 
was made in this House, and that was not for an additional appropriation, but 
to allow the President to divert two millions of the five which were appropriated 
for the suppression of Indian hostilities, to the removal, peacefully, of the Chero- 
kees, if the President should deem it expedient. This is the amendment. "Pro- 
vided, that if the President shall ascertain that all dissatisfaction of further opposi- 
tion on the part of any portion of the Cherokee Indians to the treaty of 1835 
can be allayed or avoided, by allowing an additional compensation for lands ceded 
to the United States by said treaty, and that thereby the Government may be 
saved the expense of keeping up the large military force within the Cherokee 
country, now contemplated, he is hereby authorized to apply two millions of 
dollars of the sum appropriated by this act to that object." 

Whatman that has a heart could object to this? It is a matter of feeling. I 
cannot speak for others, but I certainly do not envy the man, who would prefer 
to expend five millions in crushing a poor, helpless, and deeply injured people, 
and driving them from the home of their fathers in chains, and at the point of 
the bayonet, instead of two millions as a measure of peace, of kindness and con- 
ciliation. I know of nothing in our own, nor the history of any other people, more 
revolting than all the circumstances of that treaty. The partition of Poland was 
a disgusting act of brute force. But here is a combination of cruelty, oppression 
and force ; and as if no element should be wanting in the hateful compound, fraud 
was superadded — and as if to remove the right of the Indians to complain of the 
fraud upon them, another fraud was perpetrated on our own Government, as is too 
manifest to admit of a doubt. The commissioners were first ordered only to treat 
■with the majority of the nation. They applied to the Department to be autho' 



rized to treat with the minority, but were refused. They had the boldness to 
apply again, and were again refused. They then sent a special messenger, Mr. 
Curry, to Washington, to communicate verbally — yes, sir, verbally — Litera scripta 
manet — with the Department, and communicate freely to the Secretary the views 
of the Commissioners, and to ask his assent. We have no evidence what those 
verbal communications were, but vve do know that this special messenger returned, 
with the approval of the Department of the suggestions of the Commissioners, 
and that the treaty was instantly made with the minority — with one-sixteenth 
only of the nation, and the meanest portion of it. Who doubts that it was done 
in pursuance of the authority of the Secretary 1 They would not have dared 
to do it without, and in open violation of previous instructions — and yet when 
the instructions, under which the treaty was made, were called for in the Senate, 
all these verbal instructions were withheld — and it is thus that, I said, a fraud was 
practised on our own Government, as well as en the Indians. 

It was under these circumstances of deliberate fraud and oppression, that a 
civilized and virtuous people, the remnant of a once powerful tribe, were about 
to be forced for ever from their homes and the graves of their fathers — a people, 
upon whom our own Government had made a great and successful experiment 
There is nothing in history which approaches the gigantic strides of this people, 
in the career of civilization. In less than the fourth of a century, a perfectly bar- 
barous people were transformed into one altogether civilized — a virtuous, indus- 
trious and prosperous people. But there was a stern and inexorable necessity 
that they should remove. I felt that necessity, and as a measure of practical hu- 
mar ity to the Indians themselves, and all questions of humanity are practical ques- 
t<?^is, I voted for the appropriations. But the first wish of my heart was, that if 
the blow must fall upon them, that it should fall in all mercy and tenderness. That 
no act of kindness should be wanting to soothe the wound which we made, I 
would, myself, have most cheerfully given them five times as much, as a peace 
offering to my own conscience. Much more readily would I vote, as I did, to 
divert two millions from military purposes to those of peace and conciliation. 
The measure, however, did not originate with Mr. Bell, but with the Secretary 
of War ; and I should be happy to know that a letter which I wrote to that officer, 
first suggested it. I should be proud of it, with whomsoever the idea did origi- 
nate ; nothing could be more humane and honorable in its conception, nor more 
advantageous in its results. That man's heart is not rightly attuned, which would 
not prefer, in any case, but especially in this, measures of peace to those of harsh- 
ness and force, and who would object to diverting means which had already 
been provided for the hunting and massacre of these poor creatures to purposes 
of charity. If one drop of blood had been shed, it would have cried to Heaven 
against us. 

But, sir, a word or two more as to economy. You see that my remarks are 
as desultory as I told you they would be, as I speak without notes or other prepa- 
ration — altogether an affair of Guerilla cavalry. Economy, yes, sir, that is once 
more the catchword. There is some boldness, at least, in this. If there is any 
thing redeeming in it, it is the audacity of an administration which has swelled the 
regular expenditures in ten years, from thirteen to nearly thirty-six millions, ven- 
turing to talk of economy. Economy ! I should think the word if it did not blister 
their lips, would crimson their cheeks. What single item of public expenditure 
has not been increased, and on the regular, and almost avowed, principle of increas- 
ing the value of public offices as rewards to clamorous and broken down politicians 
as the spoils of victory — spoils not torn from conquered enemies, but from their 
own confiding country. Well, sir, in this they exhibit their usual tact and skill ; 
they know that the true sensorium of liberty is the pocket. 

AVe have seen the people of this country standing by quietly and as if un- 
heeding, and seeing one by one every entrenchment of the public liberty broken 



down, and all its ancient guarantees destroyed, with not only perfect indificrence, 
but with increased confidence in those wlio did it, at last aroused from a sleep, that 
seemed lethargic, by the supposed loss of a few millions — one encroachment after 
another — one usurpation after another, in quick and terrible succession have we 
seen ociiw, and pass by us like a sunnner's cloud. Their very frequency secured 
their impunity. One enormity was hardly exposed before another, and a worse one 
trod on its heels, and the first became an old story. Usurpations so frequent and 
important, as really, in my judgment, to have caused an almost entire civil revo- 
lution. And I say iu the presence of that God, whom I would not dare to call upon 
to attest a falsehood, that there is nojpeople in Christendom purporting to be free, 
in my judgment, which has been as badly governed for the last ten years as our 
own, by as weak, as ignorant, and incompetent men. Nor do I believe that in any 
limited monarchy in Europe would usurpations and acts have been tolerated, 
which have been here, in this Republic of ours. But the great body of the people 
are now, thank God, aroused, and the cry is, once more, economy — retrench- 
ment — and by whom is it raised ? By a party coming into power on those same 
watchwords — a party, the great leader of which in the Senate, offered resolutions 
in 1S3G, calling on the Secretaries of War and the Navy to inform the Senate, 
what was the fi^rcatest amount which they could expend. This is something new, 
ui least, in public or private affairs. Prudent men, in either, inquire what is the 
smallest sum that will do ; it is only the profligate spendthrift who seeks for 
objects to squander his money on. But never before was such an idea broached by 
any public man. Here it is : 

On motion by Mr. Benton, and by unanimous consent, 

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to inform the Senate what is the ma.iimum 
amount that can be beneficially expended annualhj upon the construction of fortifications, provided 
the corps of engineers is increased according to the bill which has passed the Senate, and that the 
whole ajipropriation for each fort is made at once, to be drawn for in annual instalments as required 
by the progress of the work. Also, that he inform the Senate what is the maximum amount which 
can be beneficially expended annually, on the objects of expenditure within the Ordnance depart- 
ment, as detailed in the report of that department of March, 8, 1836 : Provided, The appropriations 
for each ol)ject be made at once for a series of years, to be drawn for annually, until the object is 
accomplished. 

Rcsolrcd, That the Secretary of the Navy be directed to inform the Senate what is the maximum 
amount which can be beneficially expended annually, towards completing the naval defences of the 
country, embracing, 1, ordnance and ordnance stores ; 2, gradual increase of the navy and collec- 
tion of materials; 3, repairs; 4, navy yards and docks, and other incidental heads of expenditure : 
Provided, The appropriations for the expenditures bo made at once for a series of years, to be drawn 
from the Treasury annually, as needed. 

And this by the leader of a party which came into power to reform the extrava- 
gance of their predecessors. To retrench the extravagance of thirteen millions a 
year down to thirty-six, and in one instance forty-six millions. Blessings often 
come upon us in disguise, and never was there a more fortunate circumstance in 
the political life of any man than was that to the honorable gentleman from 
Massachusetts, (Mr. Adams,) that he should have been turned out of office by Gen. 
Jackson. There were many acts of that administration which I disapprove, and 
few of its principles with which I agreed. But upon some great and leading 
matters, especially that of economy and accountability of devotion of the time 
and talents of able men, exclusively to their public duties, and above all a stern 
determination to proscribe no subordinate officer for opinion sake, the highest 
eulogy which history can pass upon it will be a contrast with that which succeeded 
it. The gentleman from Massachusetts, and myself are, I believe, more frequently 
opposed in debate than any two members on this floor — many more cuffs than 
compliments have passed between us. But, sir, if I had any feeling of unkindnesa 
to him personally, which I have not, I should bo the more disposed to say what I 
have as it is no more than justice. 



10 

And now as to the great question of the day, the question of "deliverance and 
liberty," as it is called, whether in irony and burlesque, or in sober seriousness, it 
is difficult to say. There are some strange things in the President's message 
on this subject. I call upon the gentlemen of the South to notice them. Those 
gentlemen who first gave their support to the " royalists, corruptionists and usurp- 
er," as they were wont to call them on account of a concurrence, honest, no doubt, 
on their part, in their views on this finance question. I told some of them then 
what it would come to. That if it was in itself a good thing, they were going into 
it under bad auspices, and with those who would not stick to it one moment longer 
than it was their interest to do so. How has my prediction been fulfilled ? The 
President tells you, in his message, that the Government should be left free 
to select banks or individuals as its fiscal agents. Aye has it come to that ? 
The advocates of the separation tell you that the power of the banks is so 
very great, that the public liberty can never be maintained against the terrible 
combination of bank and state. That you must give the Government no control 
over the banks, or else that the great power of the banks will be wielded in subser- 
viency to the Government; and, therefore, say they, you must not think of select- 
ing banks, owned by the states themselves, where the patronage will enure to the 
benefit of the whole state — or where that cannot be done, to have banks selected 
and the terms of their agency fixed by Congress. When in fact and truth, the 
President will have no more power than in the payment of a pension. But that it 
is perfectly safe and harmless to have nothing fixed by Congress, but to leave the 
whole matter to the unrestricted and unregulated discretion of the Executive. — 
Where there is no discretion in the exercise of a power or the choice of agents, 
there can be no patronage ; there is nothing to stimulate the hopes of one 
man, nor to excite the fears of another. But give, as proposed to the President, 
the power to use the banks, or not, and if these agencies for the Government are 
half as important as they are represented to be, you at once place the banks at 
the feet of the Executive, debased suppliants and subservient vassals. Regulate 
it by law, and there can be none of the blandishments of Executive patronage 
on the one hand, nor the terrors of Executive proscription on the other. But it is, 
indeed, a notable remedy for the dangers of Executive patronage and power, to 
double that patronage and power. Is it Machiavelism, or a want of knowledge 
of the subject ? One or the other it must be. The President attributes the 
restoration of the currency to a state of soundness, amongst other things, to the 
stern determination of the Government not to deposite its funds except on special 
deposite — on special deposite — a more impudent imposture was never attempted 
upon the country. The President may not himself have known it. What do we 
understand by the term special deposite ? Every one knows that we mean a 
deposite for safe keeping, and not to be used by the banks. Does the Secretary 
mean this ? Not at all. He should have then told us what he did mean, and not 
have thus misled us. What did he mean ? He meant this, as drawn from him 
on cross examination : that it was a deposite not to be paid on demand, but at 
future and stipulated times. In other words, a credit given to the bank ; a de- 
posite more favorable to the banks than a general deposite, and all that was 
special in it was for the benefit of the bank. 

Yes, sir, it is true, that all the money the Government has had for the last 
six months, has been on deposite with banks, and what is worse, with that monster 
of the apocalypse with seven heads and ten horns, the Bank of the United States. 
I say all, for the Government has been living from hand to mouth, and living at all 
only by the resource of the spendthrift after he has squandered his money, to have 
his bonds shaved. You liave had no money but the proceeds of the bonds of 
the bank which have been sold. That is all ; for you have struck down the 
struggUng energies of the country. If your iron hand were one moment with- 



11 / 

^rawn, they would rise up like the strong man from his sleep, and by their inappre- 
ciable resources and power would pour into your coflers overflowing revenues. 
But these resources arc now dried up, and you maintain a stinted existence, from 
day to day, by shaving your bonds. And what is more, by the terms of that 
negotiation the monster has, I have not the least doubt, made more clear money 
than it ever before made in any one year from its connexion with the Government. 
And thus ends the miserable humbug of separation — a humbug, to which I 
feel a hostility almost personal, because it is a humbug; and still more, because it 
is a humbug which has given me a good deal of trouble. I was told an anecdote 
the other day, which I will give to the House as I heard it. I do not vouch 
for it, but I believe it to be true. It is known that the negotiation with the 
Bank of the United States was not made by Mr. Woodbury- — that would have 
been too bad, to have forced our great financier into a negotiation with the hated 
monster — the public nostrils could not have endured it — Mr. Poinsett was select- 
ed for this labor of love. I am told that after the matter was all arranged, Mr. 
Biddle said to him, well now, sir, the status of 1834 is restored ; there is a re- 
union between the Government and my Bank ; these second nuptials have been 
secret, it is true, but come out and acknowledge it, and make an honest woman 
of your bride. What must have been the feelings of the respective parties, the 
Administration and Mr. Biddle ? 

On the one side, ignorance, charlatanry and trick, driven from one expedient 
to another, and at last, forced to solicit the aid of an institution upon which, and 
all connected with it, they had been waging a ruthless and exterminating war. 
The other as calm as the breaking of a May morning on his beautiful villa on the 
Delaware, looking with pity, if not contempt, on his vanquished enemies, mingled 
with the shame and sorrow of a patriot, that his country should be thus governed. 
I believe it is Cicero who says, that one of the greatest arts of an orator is, in 
the selection of his topics. In discoursing of the misdeeds of this Administration, 
that is difficult, their name is Legion, for they are many ; but there are some others 
which I must notice. It is susceptible of proof, and soon will be proven, that 
during the suspension of specie payments, when the law of the land expressly 
forbade it, and when the administration party were clamoring for the rejection 
of the notes of banks which were promptly paid on demand ; and when the notes 
of non-specie paying banks could not be received but in open violation of law, 
that such notes were habitually received in payment of duties with the knowledge 
and tacit sanction of the Department. 

It may be remembered, that when the bill authorizing the issue of Treasury 
notes was under consideration, I opposed it — I believed it unconstitutional, and I 
think proved it to be so ; at all events, the argument has never been answered. But, 
willing to raise the necessary supplies, I proposed a loan for two years, which 
it was well known could have been instantly disposed of at a premium. Some of 
my southern friends were horror struck that I should thus propose a new public 
debt. Well, sir, I did not sec that a debt was any the less a debt, because we 
should have ten thousand instead of ten hundred cieditors. But it was said, that 
my proposition would raise a permanent debt — a permanent debt redeemable in 
two years : but that the great advantage of these Treasury notes was that they 
would ilow back into the public Treasur}' as rapidly as they were paid out. 

Well, sir, what did the Government to this end ; the returning speedily of these 
notes into the Treasury ■ I will tell you what I have been informed, and believe 
to be true. Did they pay them out to the creditors of the Government ? not at all. 
But they employed brokers to dispose of them to banks, with the expectation, if 
not with the express understanding, that the banks would retain them, as the six 
per cent, interest which they bore, was as much as the bank would receive, if it 
loaned them out, and that they should not be thrown into the circulation, and 



would not, therefore, return into the Treasury ; and this, after urging as the strong- 
est argument in favor of their issue, their speedy return. 

But lor what were these Treasury notes exchanged? surely not for irredeemable 
bank rags. They would hardly have exchanged the paper of the Government, 
beariiiif interest, for the paper of broken banks, bearing none. Was it for specie, 
then, the Government was conniving at and encouraging the fraud which it so loud- 
ly denounced in the banks, of using and speculating on their specie whilst they 
refused to redeem their notes which were outstanding? But, sir, I have no 
doubt that bank notes were received in exchange. Bank notes were paid out by 
the Government; it must have got them somewhere; and to get them anywhere 
was in violation, not only of their professions, but of their duty. They had "no right 
to receive the bills of banks which were not redeemed on demand. 

There was a beautiful illustration of this hard money humbug, during the last 
summer, in Georgia. The troops, raised to execute the Cherokee treaty, were paid 
off, not in gold and silver, or Treasury notes, but in Georgia bank notes, (I am in- 
formed by more than one respectable man,) in the bills chiefly of the Ocmulgee 
bank, which were at a discount ior other Georgia money. They demanded 
other money, but could not get it. A (ew days afterwards, there was a sale 
of some corn and bacon, which the agents of the Government had accumulated 
and which was not needed ; then, sir, it was a different affair, gold and silver, or 
Treasury notes, could alone be received. The soldier who had toiled in the public 
service, and desired to purchase those supplies, which his absence from home had 
made necessary, could not pay ihe Government for them in the very money which 
he had received from that Government the day before, and the articles were 
purch sed by a few speculators and Government employes, who had the kind 
of funds required, at one fourth of their value, and re-sold at enormous proiits. I 
have now in my eye an honorable member from Mississippi, who had a near 
relative in that service, and who can vouch for the truth of these statements. 
Yes, sir, while your Government was professing to receive no'hing, and had no 
right to receive any thing but gold and silver, or Treasury notes, and whilst the 
members of Congress were paid in one or the other, the soldier in your service 
was paid in a depreciated bank paper which, before the Aveek was out, the 
same Government refused to receive from him. These facts, I have from un- 
questionable authority ; I do not state them positively, for that I will not do, but 
on personal knowledge ; but I have no earthly doubt of their truth. 

Again, sir, you remember the lectures on economy which were so liberally 
read to us, when we proposed to print a public document of the utmost public 
importance, a report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the late defalcations, 
and at the very moment, by the leader of the party, in another body, there was a 
proposition to print, at the cost of at least thirty thousand dollars, not a document, 
but a l)ook upon salt, a thing so utterly useless that if the resolution which passed 
that body by the votes of the party — the democratic party — the retrenchment party 
— comes into this House, I shall move to amend it, by striking out the book upon 
salt, and substituting Webster's spelling book, or Peter Parley's Tales ; either will 
be more useful. But the printer of the House is not of the party — the printer of 
the Senate is. 

I take no pleasure in these topics. If I had any personal or party malignity 
to gratify, I should forbear to do it ; for the gratification that I should receive 
would be infinitely more than counterbalanced by the gloomiest forebodings for the 
future, from the reflection that these acts have been quietly submitted to, not in the 
old age and decrepitude of the republic, but in its youthful adolescence. The 
natural and unaided tendency of our system is to consolidation, and its proclivity, 
as recently developed to corruption, is dangerous and alarming. The alhirements 
of office and the temptations which are held out to necessitous members of decayed, 



13 

but yet influential, families, with the immense patronage of the federal Exn "itive, 
wielded as that patronage now is, by the greatest master in that way, siixe Sir 
Robert VValpole, and to whom he bears the most striking resemlilancc in every 
point of public and private character, makes the present crisis fearfid and alarm- 
ing. Of dissolution I never have h:ul any fears. It never will, it never can 
happen. There is another and a greater danger — consolidation and the consequent 
increase of Executive power, and the universal corruption of the vitals of tin body 
politic — until the whole mass becomes rotten and falls to pieces by its own (-(irrup- 
tion. General Jackson, who had many, very many points of a great man about 
him, unequalled sagacity, coolness, and a courage, moral and physical, which 
blenched at nothing, did more to change the principles of the Government than 
every man who has lived before him. He was born a despot — he was so by 
the natural constitution of his mind ; still more was he so by habit and education. 
He was born to command, as has been said of him, and he did not disapixunt his 
destinv — ijura ncgct sibi nata. Loving power as he did from instinct as well as 
habit, it was natural that he should seek to destroy the power of all the co-oniinate 
branches ot the Government, all those checks and balances provided by our wise 
forefathers — exactly in proportion as he did so he strengthened the pow(!r of the 
Executive. He struck no blow more ine'idious or more fatal than by a ( niistant 
appeal to the pco|)lc as his constituents a-rainst the other constituted autln lities of 
the country — Make the Executive the direct representative of the people, and by 
whatever name you call it, your Government is a despotism. 

I declare, in all sincerity, that I regard the present as an infinitely important 
epoch in the history of the country ; involving, in my deliberate judgment, the 
question whether the President shall nominate his successor? The lirst step 
in the downward progress of all the Republics which have preceded us. as to 
forms of Government, they are not so important ; I would rather have a despo- 
tism with the general spirit of liberty, than free institutions without that spirit. 
The forms of the Roman Republic remained, long after there was no vestige 
of Roman liberty left, nor was that liberty crushed by the all accomplished Ju- 
lius, although he inflicted a deep wound upon it ; yet its destruction was not 
consummated by that high and generous spirit. It was the wily and artlul Au- 
gustus who finished the work which had been commenced, and by the ni' bt fatal 
process, the slow decay of insidious and gradual corruption. I have only to say, 
in conclusion, that from a careful and impartial review of the past, 1 can place 
no confidence in the pledges, however solemnly made by the party in power. 
I know of no single principle which they have carried out on pledge, that 
they have redeemed. If, contrary to all my expectations, they shall honestly 
carry out the principles which they profess, they shall have my votes for their 
measures, not for themselves. It may be, too, sir, that a state of things may oc- 
cur, when 1 shall not .support those who oppose them. If it does, I shall take a 
choice of evils. I shall endorse for neither, and expect my position still fo be 
in the opposition, supporting the measures of the Administration when right, as 
I have heretofore done ; but not, in the slightest degree, connecting myself 
with that Administration. I claim no sort of credit for this, sir, wholly inde- 
pendent as I am of Executive patronage and power, having no wish connected 
with public life but for the speedy termination of my own, and despising myself 
as I should, if I could exchange the service of such constituents as 1 have, for 
any ofl'icc in the gift of any President. 

All humble as I am, thanks to the noblest constituency that ever man ha<1, I am 
here as an indeiieiident power ; 1 am no man's man ; I owe allegiance to no man ; 
I have. {I carte blanche from my constituents to do whatever I think for the public 
good. And I well know that as long as I am faithful in the discharge of my duties, 
if I do err — as err I must — their kindness will forgive me. And if, sir, I could so 



, - J ♦« «,t.«plf as to debase myself into a party or j 
, forget what is due ^omyf^^l 'f^ f,, them to do it. No, sir, I 

ry\Thrfreedi^^^^^ barter i-wj- J^-^^^^^^^^^ 

L^rndUior. put into circums^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

but one authority on earth to jh ch i submi y^P ^^^.ti^^ents, and ; 
3w in willing and grateful homage, the auth^^^^^^^^^ J forgiving as a it 
aly felt in kindness and affection, as gentle, ana ds iu g & 




O 4^ 





• 4 O !o 



» - o . » - 







GraJBtvilio. PA 



■,'^c, 



